Report: Joe Lynn Turner Hospitalized After Heart Attack

Former Rainbow and Deep Purple frontman Joe Lynn Turner has been hospitalized in Eastern Europe after being diagnosed with a “heart issue,” his friend Graham Bonnet confirmed.

The news was revealed by Russian state media, with RIA saying that Turner, 66, was being treated in a Minsk emergency hospital for “myocardial infarction,” a form of heart attack. The Ministry of Health of Belarus were reported as saying: “Yesterday, a patient with myocardial infarction entered the hospital, he was treated with all possible modern methods, and now his condition is stable.” The report added that Turner, who is married to a lawyer from Belarus, had recently said he was planning a permanent move to the nation.

Bonnet confirmed the situation in a Facebook post, saying: “My friend Joe was hospitalized in Minsk with a heart issue last night and myself, Beth-Ami [Heavenstone] and the rest of the Graham Bonnet Band wish him a complete and speedy recovery. We love you, Joe.”

Turner fronted Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow from 1980 to 1984, and later reunited with the guitarist for a two-year stint with Deep Purple in 1990. Last year he criticized Blackmore for putting together a new Rainbow lineup without any other former members, saying: “I had worked with Ritchie's manager for over a year trying to put something together that was authentic. When I say 'authentic,' I mean authentic lineup, regardless of who was still around, who wasn't. We were going to have people that actually were in Rainbow... And they just pulled out at the last minute really and put this thing together."

He added: “Why would anyone of his iconic nature want to come out and not be as good as he can be? Because, obviously, the reviews haven't been that good. And that's not for me to say — that's what people are saying. It's obvious that it's just not living up to snuff. It's a shame that they didn't see the vision that they should have put an authentic Rainbow together, because all the fans feel disrespected in a way.”